Wednesday, February 28, 2018

I received two new ISK Pearl microphones. These come with hard clip mounts only, so I decided to try making some shock mounts. Researching designs for SDC microphones I found many that use crossed shock cords to hold the microphone in place. The microphone body is slipped between the crossed shock cords. The issues I see are that the microphone can easily slip out and they have a tendency to sag.

The design below incorporates an inner collar that holds the microphone body securely. The shock cords attach to the collar itself. Hopefully this will prevent the microphone from falling out and eliminate sagging.

I used part of an old hard clip to attach the new shock mount to the microphone stand. Rubber bands are used for the shock cords until I can find suitable elastic bands or make my own.

The design is very simple and is made from all flat pieces. These could be cut by hand, but if you have a laser cutter or access to one you can use this SVG file to cut the pieces in only a few minutes. I can provide the Fusion 360 files too if you want to use them as a starting point to create your own design.

Monday, January 29, 2018

I needed to build more snakes but this time with XLR fanouts. I mentioned in my previous post that I was going to try using pigtail connectors instead of the breakout boards. I purchased a bunch of pigtails from ebay for about a buck apiece. The ones I selected have all the appearances of being shielded. However they are not. The cable has a foil shield but it is not electrically connected to the jack or plug. The solution was to solder a wire directly to the metal outer shell on the jack and then tie this to all the grounds of the XLR connectors.

The boxes for this batch were made on a laser cutter instead of using electrical junction boxes. They have all the right sized holes in the right places and they look much nicer. It is not required to mount the end in a box but it does add a layer of protection and improves handling.